I bought these years ago, mine are the v.2 models in the light cherry laminate finish. They have seved me well as remotes for stereo in the man cave. I also have a set of Paradigm Reference Studio 100's v.2 and 20's v.2, both of these sets are in the light cherry veneer finish. The 100's are the mains in my living room, and the 20's were remotes in the den. I recently broke down the system as far as the remotes go, and try my hand at a home theater system for the bedroom. Capitalizing on what I already own, I picked up some stands (30") and set the Mini Monitors for the rear channels, and the Studio 20's for the fronts, with a Studio CC v.2 for the center, drug the Servo 15 v.2 sub in the bedroom aswell and tucked it beside chest on chest. Hooked it all up to a new
Denon AVR 2112ci and an OPPO BDP 93 blu-ray player, and a Samsung 750 series 40" flat screen hung high on the wall at the foot of the bed. The end result was truly amazing, these old monitors have and still serve me very well, even at 10 years old, they sound as good or better than anything in their price range up to $750, I see them on the Bay frequently in black for around 100 bucks, an absolute steal at that price point. They worked well as remotes but now they really shine as rears in a HTS. If you can grab an old set of these under 200 and use them in a similar scenario as mine you won't be dissapointed

After spending several months looking at different monitors in this size range including the Paradigm Atom Monitor and some active recording monitors, I settled on Paradigm Mini Monitors.

Compared to the three other speakers that I have in the price range, the mini's are my 2nd favorite. My favorite are Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble I's, then the Mini's, then my SpeakerCraft AIM LCR One's, and finally my first pair of speakers: Clement's Audio 107di's.

The choice between the Ensemble's and the Mini's was personal. I prefer the tone of paper, and the bass of an acoustic air suspension.

Pros:
They are fantastically neutral, yet not cold and lifeless.
The bass extension is phenomenal for a speaker this size.
They image beautifully.
High end is crisp and clear.
The mids sound natural, and shine on vocals.

Cons:
They don't flip the record for you.

This review is for the latest version of the Paradigm Mini Monitors V.6.

I auditioned these and the B&W 605. I thought the 605's were amazing and
excelled at vocals and jazz. I also, liked that that they are bi-wired. Yet, I chose the
Mini Monitors because I felt that they handled a larger variety of music and had a
fuller/musical sound. I won't go into technical specifics, because I am not a seasoned veteran
of gear, yet I have a large collection of almost all forms of music, and have worked at a record shop
for many years (which sold vinyl).

This sound won me over, even though it goes against the current preference for complete neutrality. Neutrality was a strong point for the Minis, just not as much as the 605's. Vocals were airy and had detail.
What the Paradigm excelled, in my IMO, beyond the 605s is this:

- It handled fast hard rocking music as easily as slow folk.
- provided details in all instruments without causing clinical separation that cd's can do. It made your cds sound better.
- It was unmatched in sonic detail of strings.
- Has a control of the frequency range that was dynamic: highs were not extremely extended, but butter smooth without the dreaded "roll off"; Bass was so tight, yet full that you would think they were fioorstanding speakers.
- Once again, the bass is their strong point that the 605s could not come close to.
- The soundstage was wide and accurate. The off angle range was incredible: you lose very little standing off to the side.
.
Get these speakers. They are $200.00 cheaper than the 605s. My blue-ray movies sound amazing, and on the opposite side of the spectrum, my vinyl sounds soooo goooood!!! That is testament to the Mini Monitors when it can excel at both formats. They design, and make all their parts in house in Canada, nothing is outsourced, so the build quality is unmatched in this price range.

Very flat response. Very detailed top. Non-fatiguing. Mates well with tubes.

None at this price point.

I decided after six faithful years of enjoyment I would semi-retire my Atoms and go for the next line up and that was the monitor series. The Minis specifically. I did check out a pair of JM Lab speakers as well but found them rather bass shy. The Minis, on the other hand, had a more even response all the way down to 40 hz with a gentle rolloff below that. The JMs had slightly more detailed highs but not by much. The only dissapointment was that it wasn't that much more revealing than my old Atoms. That's not so much of a damning statement of the Minis as it is more a testament of how good the Atoms really are. Are the Minis worth the extra green? in a word: Definitely!
The Monitor series has been completely redesigned from the ground up and I definitely am going to check them out. From what I've heard so far they are a smashing success soundwise.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Atom v2
JM Labs

Able to shame monitors that cost three, four, times the price. Rich, warm, full-bodied sound that exudes character and class.

At this price don't even think about it!

The following is in reference to the version 4 Mini Monitor. One word can sum up the sound of these speakers... STUNNING! This is a no BS, smooth, full sounding speaker that literally SHAMES the competition, at three, four, times the price. I have never heard a speaker in its price range (or any range, for that matter) sound so natural and inviting. Everything about theese speakers exudes class and makes you just want to kick back and listen for hours. They may not have the fancy wrapping that other, high-priced monitors have, but what they don't have in packaging they more than make up for in sound quality, and that, my friends, is what it's all about. If you like your music full, rich, warm, and easy on the ears, but with just enough detail to let you know what's going on, then the V4 Mini Monitors are for you.

Similar Products Used:

B&W Matrix 805, Spendor S3/5, Harbeth HL-P3.

clarity , range , even sound at all volumes

none for bookshelf

great speakers under 250 is a steal.. gives you big soung full and rich .. in a little plain box..

Similar Products Used:

monitor 5v3, mini monitor v2, klipsch kg2.2 , acoustic research , boston acoustic ..

Crossover setting is beautifully low at 2 khz. The tweeter can perform well, and can be heard well off axis, where frequency response does not drop off nearly as rapidly as with other bookshelf models. Build quality is superb for a sub $400/pair speaker, I like the dark cherry veneer. I listen to my music with no eq/bass enhancement, etc, and these speakers are perfect for the discerning stereo enthusiast.

Uneven response through the bass frequencies. I think the port is too low. I don't particularly mind this when listening to techno or rap, but with jazz, classical, or rock, I want to hear the 80hz-140hz frequencies a little more. My ears might just be more sensitive to those low frequencies though, overall, the bass response is much better than similar products.

I use to only want speakers that could scream and kick out a lot of bass. So I bought Cerwin Vega VS-100s. They are great speakers, but I needed 2-way mid-fi bookshelf speakers (for college). So I shopped around for three months, checking out every brand on the internet, reading reviews. I was pretty much disgusted by what Good Guys and Circuit City carried. Finally I went with a friend to Definitive Audio/Video and listened to the Paradigm Mini Monitor. It soared above all other moderately priced bookshelf speakers I had heard. The sales associate told me that they make every component themselves, including hand-winding the copper voice coils. Both my friend and I bought a pair of Paradigms that day. When I still want a lot of bass I use a Yamaha sub.

Similar Products Used:

Polk RTi38 (syrupy treble), Infinity Alpha 20 (artificial treble, decent bass), Energy C-3 (great bass extension, lack of presence in mids), Boston CR-75 (bad build quality, 'processed' although preci

very clear and detailed sound. excellent bang for the buck.

none

ruler flat frequency response

Similar Products Used:

boston acoustic, infinity

Extremely clean sound, and all around well-done speaker at a VERY good price. A must-hear if you are at this pricerange.

None, except some people may not like a truly flat response into the highs. Many people are not used to good high-freq response, so some may not like what they hear as harsh. I think that this is an important feature, and more often it's the room that makes them sound harsh, not the speaker.

Well, I previously had some titans, which were very nice indeed, but I wanted to build a complete home theater, and so I started looking for some better replacements. I immediately went in and listened to the V3 mini-monitors, and they sounded quite nice. I auditioned them carefully against the B&W 601 S3, and I was surprised that I like the mini-monitors more. The 601s were very fatiguing, and while the mini-monitors seemed to lack a little bit of detail, everything they did was done well, and cleanly. The bass extension is better than the titans, and there is no mid-bass boominess which i find very irritating. All in all, for 350 bucks, this is a VERY capable speaker, and probably the best at this pricerange. I also listened to monitor audio silver series, PSB, klipsch, and JM labs, along with the B&Ws.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 601 S3 (good but more expensive and not as good) JM Labs (good too, but more expensive, and by the time i listened I had already purchased the mini-monitors) Klipsch (not even close) PSB (not e

Extremely clean sound, and all around well-done speaker at a VERY good price. A must-hear if you are at this pricerange.

None, except some people may not like a truly flat response into the highs. Many people are not used to good high-freq response, so some may not like what they hear as harsh. I think that this is an important feature, and more often it's the room that makes them sound harsh, not the speaker.

Well, I previously had some titans, which were very nice indeed, but I wanted to build a complete home theater, and so I started looking for some better replacements. I immediately went in and listened to the V3 mini-monitors, and they sounded quite nice. I auditioned them carefully against the B&W 601 S3, and I was surprised that I like the mini-monitors more. The 601s were very fatiguing, and while the mini-monitors seemed to lack a little bit of detail, everything they did was done well, and cleanly. The bass extension is better than the titans, and there is no mid-bass boominess which i find very irritating. All in all, for 350 bucks, this is a VERY capable speaker, and probably the best at this pricerange. I also listened to monitor audio silver series, PSB, klipsch, and JM labs, along with the B&Ws.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 601 S3 (good but more expensive and not as good) JM Labs (good too, but more expensive, and by the time i listened I had already purchased the mini-monitors) Klipsch (not even close) PSB (not e